The respiration rate is an important indicator of the well-being and the health status of a human being. An illness or state of stress is often reflected by changes in the respiration rate. The monitoring of the respiration rate therefore regularly makes an important contribution to the monitoring of the state of stress and the health status of the person being monitored.
Various respiration rate monitors for use in hospitals as well as outside hospitals are currently known in medicine for monitoring the respiration rate. One example of such a monitor or such a device for monitoring respiration is known from DE 40 11 065 A1.
However, especially for the non-invasive monitoring of respiration, the prior-art devices do not meet the requirements imposed concerning clinical handling, reliability, accuracy and reproducibility of the measurement results. This is due especially to the fact that the devices currently available for monitoring respiration and for measuring the respiration rate are either complicated technically and in terms of design and are felt to be disturbing by the user or the person being monitored, and this is especially true of devices for use outside hospitals and for use by mobile, i.e., not bedridden patients, or these devices have a high sensitivity to artifacts.